Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Via my parents, a reminder that it is the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Coventry and the destruction of the old cathedral. I suppose this should probably be Britten's War Requiem but on a day like today Johannes Brahms' setting of Psalm 39 from A German Requiem feels more appropriate.

Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.
Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.

Here is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, matchless and authoritative as the baritone soloist, accompanied by Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia in Kingsway Hall in 1961.

There is nothing that is not delightful about Johannes Brahms' Academic Festival Overture: its characteristic use of theme of variations; its deceptively casual structure; it's brilliant orchestration; its cheeky sense of humour — most of themes are student drinking songs — and approachability. Here's Bernstein and the Vienna Phil doing justice to a brief masterpiece.